


Circular Gallifreyan

by iceprinceofbelair



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gallifreyan, Gen, Languages, TARDIS Rooms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 02:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16547477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceprinceofbelair/pseuds/iceprinceofbelair
Summary: The Doctor teaches Yaz a little of her native language.





	Circular Gallifreyan

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Spaceships should have labels](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16545371) by [Beauteousmajesty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beauteousmajesty/pseuds/Beauteousmajesty). 



“Still up?” Comes a voice from behind her and Yaz nearly jumps out of her skin. 

She turns to find the Doctor standing a few feet away, hands shoved deep in the pockets of her trousers. Her long coat is gone and her yellow braces are hanging down around her thighs. She’s looking at Yaz curiously, head tilted adorably to one side.

“Couldn’t find my room,” she admits. “You really could do with some signage in here.”

The Doctor raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean? There are plenty of signs.”

“None that I can see,” Yaz says with a frown. 

The Doctor steps forward and raises a hand to point at the circular patterns on the wall just by Yaz’s head. “Look, see. Med bay,” she says and then points further down the corridor.

“It’s a language?” Yaz asks, suddenly more fascinated than sleepy. She glances from the Doctor to the intricate circles on the wall, tracing the lines with her finger. “It’s beautiful.”

When she looks back at the Doctor, Yaz is surprised to find her looking, if possible, more confused than Yaz herself feels. A true feat, considering she’s spent the last half hour - if time even passes on this ship - trying to find somewhere to lie down. At this point, she’s glad to know where the med bay is at least; there’s probably a bed in there if all else fails. 

“Yaz, what can you see?” She asks slowly, nodding to the sign again.

“Uh, circles. And lines.”

The Doctor’s brow furrows deeper and she raises her eyes to the sky in thought before her entire face relaxes, settling into satisfaction the way it always does when she’s solved a puzzle.

“She’s not translating,” she says, completely nonsensically. She shakes her head. “Sorry, circular Gallifreyan is my first language. She knows I like to read it as much as I can. I just assumed the TARDIS would translate it for you.”

“It can do that?” Yaz asks, amazed. Every day, this ship surprises her.

“Oh, yeah!” The Doctor exclaims, patting the wall of the corridor affectionately. “She’s brilliant. Automatically translates any language you see or hear into one you can understand.”

Yaz laughs in delight. “That’s amazing,” she grins before her face falls. “So, why isn’t she translating the signs?”

The Doctor scrunches up her face as she peers at the sign more closely, squinting at it like she’s trying to find something hidden. 

“Not sure,” she admits after a moment. “But everything can be learning experience. I can teach you to read it, if you want?”

“What? Really?” Yaz asks in disbelief but there’s a flurry of excitement bubbling in her stomach. An alien language, a real language from another planet. 

“Sure! You’re smart. You’ll pick it up easy,” says the Doctor and her unbridled confidence in Yaz’s ability to learn her home language is extremely reassuring. She points to the sign again, index finger settling over the bottom of the circle. “Okay, so, the basics of Circular Gallifreyan. You start at the bottom and work your way counterclockwise,” she explains, running her finger along the circle anticlockwise to demonstrate.

Yaz nods along excitedly, unable to keep herself from bouncing on her heels. 

The Doctor returns to the bottom circle and says, “This word here is your equivalent of ‘medical’ and each of the circles and lines represent the letters we use to make up the word-”

Abruptly, the Doctor stops talking and squints at the sign again, her face breaking into a grin. “Oh, you clever girl,” she whispers fondly, turning back to Yaz. “She is translating. I thought it looked a bit different. It’s using your alphabet.”

Yaz blinks. “What?”

“The circles and lines are representative of a letter in the alphabet and, put together, they make up a word. In Gallifreyan, the alphabet is- well it’s complicated but it’s not strictly speaking an  _ alphabet  _ and more of a collection of symbols which each have specific meanings,” says the Doctor quickly.

“Like Chinese?” Yaz asks.

“Yes!” The Doctor yelps, pointing at Yaz with a grin. “Just like Chinese. Well, sort of. But this, oh this is much more intricate. I love English. The same twenty six letters and you can say anything you like. Amazing.”

“Doctor?”

“Right, yeah, sorry,” says the Doctor, taking Yaz’s hand and gently placing her fingers against the intricate pattern of circles. “This here is ‘medical’ and each of the letters is enclosed within this smaller circle. That’s how you can tell where the word ends. You read each of the letters counterclockwise just like the rest of the sentence. Make sense?”

“Uh,” Yaz says, tracing the patterns of the word carefully. “Sort of?”

The Doctor sighs. “Sorry. I’m not a very good teacher.”

“No, no!” Yaz says quickly. “You’re great. I’ve never learned an alien language before.”

“I’ve never taught one before,” the Doctor returns with a sparkling grin. “First time for everything.”

Yaz smiles, looking back to the sign. What had the Doctor called it? Circular Gallifreyan? She wonders if this is the planet the doctor is from, or perhaps a city on a planet. Do alien planets even have cities? 

“Doctor?” She says and the Doctor looks at her curiously, waiting for the question. “What planet are you from?”

There’s a flash of sadness across the Doctor’s face but it’s brief, gone in a heartbeat. Still, Yaz doesn’t like knowing that she put it there. For a few seconds, the Doctor is silent. She scuffs the TARDIS floor with the toe of her boot, hands back in her pockets and eyes down.

“Gallifrey,” she says, looking back up at Yaz with a wistful expression. 

“Where’s that?” Yaz asks, breathless.

The Doctor smiles sadly. “In the constellation of Kasterbouros, about 250 million light-years from Earth.”

“Wow,” Yaz breathes, feeling awestruck by the impossibility of the woman standing next to her, of the ship that surrounds her. “You’re a long way from home.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor whispers.

Yaz smiles kindly. “Don’t you want to go back?”

“Can’t,” the Doctor says quickly, bouncing out of her sadness with a suddenness that throws Yaz off kilter. “All gone now. Long time ago. Just me now. And you lot, of course. We’ve had fun together, eh? Anywhere you want to go next?”

The question is a distraction, a ploy to prevent Yaz from registering the enormity of what the Doctor has just shared with her. Yaz can’t begin to imagine how she would feel if  _ Sheffield  _ were gone let alone her entire planet. The Doctor, she realises with a pang, is alone in the universe. She has nowhere to go, nowhere that’s home. Nowhere but the TARDIS. And suddenly Yaz understands why she’s so fond of her ship.

_ It’s my home; our home.  _ Isn’t that what she’d said to Astos? 

Yaz steps forward and drags the Doctor close to her, hugging her as tightly as she can. It only takes a moment of shocked stiffness before the Doctor relaxes into her body and hugs her back. 

“I really want to learn your language,” Yaz whispers. “I want to help you keep Gallifrey alive.”

The Doctor pulls back and her eyes are shining with tears. “Thanks, Yaz,” she says quietly. “You’re a real gem.”

Yaz hugs her again.

**Author's Note:**

> guide to circular gallifreyan for those as nerdy as i am http://shermansplanet.com/gallifreyan/guide.pdf  
> i've never written fanfic for doctor who before but jodie whittaker has got me all a flutter


End file.
